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Closing Reflection

  The primary and instant feeling I have after finishing this course is: GO OUTSIDE MORE. I don’t know why this realization doesn’t come up more at the end of my other EV classes, but I think I might know why I feel that way after Environmental Ethics. Reading Kimmerer and Leopold made me think about how entire careers can be established around spending time outside. I think I may have had some sort of notion that this wasn’t going to be possible and that this was hindering my desire to spend time outdoors. This is not a productive way to think about the outdoors, but I think that at college, it’s easy for me to get caught up in weird subconscious beliefs that don’t make any sense. The texts we read this block made me realize the importance of almost forcing yourself to go outside for a while every day. Even if you are just sitting there and doing nothing, you start observing what’s around you and thinking about nature as a system. This habit helps view the world as something mor...
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Outdoor Observations #3

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  Whenever I remember that twilight exists, it becomes my favorite time of the day all over again. I often get upset myself when I’m inside and then go outside to find that it has gotten dark. I feel like I have wasted the most important part of the day. One time during a block break in Leadville, Colorado, my friend Isaac and I went for a walk at sunset, and he commented on how he had read something about how watching the sunset every day is good for your mental health because it makes you feel anchored. After thinking about this for a while, I thought about how the routines in your life really make you who you are. The music I listen to, the environments I spend time in, the people I interact with, the food and drinks I consume, etc. Kimmerer’s writing of routines reminded me of this feeling, and I have been trying to embrace it more lately. I realize that I spent a lot of this year trying not to be alone when maybe that would have been valuable for me. Like right now, I’m sitt...
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Reading Reflection 5

  In Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall-Kimmerer, Kimmerer discusses humans’ interactions and relationships with nature, specifically through her own experiences. This reading made me realize that a lot of the things I do regarding nature are more in line with caring for and respecting the land than I had thought. In the chapter “An Offering”, Kimmerer writes about how ceremonies build connections between humans and nature. She discusses how when her family would spend summers in the Adirondacks, they would start every day the same, with the same ceremony in which her father would pour coffee into the ground.  She writes, “I imagined that this place knew my true name as well, even when I myself did not” (34). This concept of “ceremony” made me think of my habits with nature that I suppose aren’t really habits, but rather ceremonies themselves. For example, back home, every day when I wake up, I first walk outside on our deck and look at the mountains. I take it in for a few s...
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Reading Reflection 4

  In “Intersectionality and the Changing Face of Ecofeminism” by A.E. Kings, Kings explains how intersectionality is heavily ingrained in all prejudices, held also showcases the necessity of the rise of ecofeminism. Ecofeminism is important because it acknowledges the similarities between the oppression of women and the environment. Kings also makes the point that both intersectionality and ecofeminism are concepts that are still works in progress, with both needing constant evolution to move away from colonial roots. I thought Kings’ thoughts on intersectionality were particularly interesting. The idea that one prejudice will often be connected with others isn’t something that I have directly considered before, but after reading this piece, it makes a lot of sense to me. Kings writes, “This ‘asking of the other question’ allows for the exposition of hidden forms of prejudice and discrimination, by exposing the various disadvantages and privileges which make up the lived experi...
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Outdoor Observations #2

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  Every time the train goes by, I’m reminded of the industrial foundations of America. The view from the Preserve looking west is vibrant and lush as the sun begins to set. You don’t notice the highway until a car goes by, and you dont notice the train tracks until a train goes by. Just as I’m writing this, I notice that the train is transporting literal commercial airplane bodies as cargo. I have never seen anything like this before. It is the entire length of the body of a plane minus the wings and tail. It’s crazy to see something like this in a place that I spend so much time. The train continues to go by, but it looks to be more normal cargo like what I’m used to seeing.  There is no passenger rail between Colorado Springs and Denver despite the pre-existing train track. It is sort of irritating to see the train transporting airplane parts because it makes me wonder how many train rides could have been in the place of the flights these airplanes will take. Trains are fa...
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Reading Reflection 3

  Part 1 of A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold is an account of one year in Wisconsin. His writing reminds me of Changes in the Land by William Cronon, but with the sensitivity of Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer. Leopold’s writing is gentle and ambient. It makes me want to go outside and sit there for hours while slowly taking in everything around me. It makes me want to leave my phone at home whenever I go somewhere. There were moments while reading where all of the magical outdoor places that feel important to me would pass through my mind: Waimanalo Beach on Oahu, Del Mar Heights Extension Trail in San Diego, and some of my favorite spots on campus in Colorado Springs. The way Leopold talks about animals is detailed and gentle. He describes their actions, habits, and intricacies. Specifically, when writing about the Sky Dance in April, he follows his observations with an equal amount of questions, reminding the audience that he is a visitor and just as present in t...
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Reading Reflection 2

     In The Radical Egalitarian Case for Animal Rights by Tom Regan, Regan presents his view on why animal rights should be protected as aggressively as human rights. He presents empathy for animals and argues that if they can feel as much as humans can, then humans should treat them as well as humans. He also states that finding better ways to interact with animals isn’t the answer, but rather completely ceasing to use animals as means for the ends of humans. He writes, “morality requires nothing less than the total elimination of commercial and sport hunting and trapping” (51). Another interesting point he makes is “we do not need to know how many individuals have inherent value before we can know that some do” (61). I interpret this as meaning that the discourse on what matters is unproductive to the mission of achieving regular humane practices with animals.       Regan’s view on this issue is very extreme and not something that I can fully agree w...
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